Artist Series -- Egilpatr

I love talking to people and finding out who they are and why they create. I have some favorite artists/crafters and will be interviewing them for your enjoyment. I’m going to keep the questions about the same, so that we can all examine the differences in how artists get to the point they are in their art/craft. Have you ever wondered while looking at a piece of art what crossed the mind of the artist, why did they choose those colors, subjects, or mediums? Who they identify with or what is their inspiration? And, the big question what happens when they have no idea what they want to create next?

Our first
interview is with Egilpatr

I met Egilpatr while visiting the Etsy fourms. A topic had begun regarding the critique of shops. She was very helpful and insightful as to what makes a shop appealing and useful to a potential customer. She even wrote a guide on how to critique your own Etsy store. Over time, we have exchanged emails and I have grown to enjoy this artist and her outlook on things. So, take some time to read about this lovely artist and in turn you might want to reflect on these questions….you never know when I’ll be emailing or convoing you for an interview!



1. When did you become interested in art and did you choose art,
or did it choose you?

I think it found me at an early age. I started by making clothes for my paper dolls, and then I made the dolls too. In High School I was in an academic program, but minored in art. I had poems and drawings in the school magazine. I studied at the same time at the Educational Alliance where many famous artists taught. I gave it up when it was time to choose a major in college because I could not believe I would have enough ideas for a lifetime. I was wrong in that, but I made a wise choice; I could have been starving today as an artist instead of being subsidized in my art by my annuity as a university professor But I always thought of myself as an artist underneath, and now I am one.

2. You get to spend one weekend each with three historical figures, an artist, a writer and one of your choice. Who are they and what will you talk about or do?

I would like to spend time with quite a few artists, but Turner for his passion and politics (his painting of a slave ship was an abolitionist icon). I want to ask him about those abstract structures underneath his pieces and what his colors looked like before they fell off. Vermeer to talk and learn about the discipline of composition and color. A writer, would be Robert Briffault, who wrote romantic, anti fascist novels (Europa and Europa in Limbo in the 1930's) and wrote some of the most provocative theories abut the structure of the family from prehistory till his day (Mothers: A Study of the Origins of Sentiments and Institutions, 1927). He stirred my mind when I was in college. I just want to hear his ideas from him, and see what he would say today about the world. And someone else. I would like to talk to the soul mate I never knew and do what we never did.

3. Do any of these choices influence your work? and why?

They all made me be the disciplined maverick I am today; romantic, but detail oriented; a rebel but upholder of rules.

4. How has the popularity of the Internet affected your work?

Oh, yes! It made it possible for me to show my work to the world; to submit online or with CD's; to invite people to a show I am in, with one letter addressed (BCC) to many, many people. And to SEE the images of great art from all the world, and the amazing work of today's photojournalists.

5. Have you discovered any new technique to creating your work that you can share?

Yes. "Tooth" describes the roughness of the painting surface. I was trying to get a blended look for a painting that was to be filled with smoke, and it wasn't blending as I wanted it to. I spoke to a former professor of mine, and she said it couldn't be done with acrylic. (I work in acrylic.) Ugh; so I asked another, and she said nonsense, keep at it. And I did. I learned that I needed to put layer upon layer (actually at least 6) of the acrylic, color on color, until the tooth was gone, and then I got the effect. See photo to the left. It is not on Etsy.

6. How do you overcome artist block?

I only seem to get that after my annual solo show in May. What will I do now; I have run out of ideas. But then I take a trip or an idea pops into my head, or I get an AH HA experience, and I am off. I am then usually able to do a new series, and as I work on that series, other ideas emerge.

7. If I walked into your studio this moment what would you show me first? What would you want to hide?

I only have the piece I am working on in the studio. Finished pieces are on my wall, in a show, or in storage. There is nothing I would hide in any of those places. Lucky, I guess

8. Describe something that comes up in your work because of a life experience.

Well, not to be too grandiose, the WAR in Iraq and Afghanistan came up in my life experience, and I have been wanting to express my protest through my art. How to do that came through to me in August, 2007. I contrast images of beauty and usually peace here at home with images of the war...in the same painting. The series is called "In The World" and I have done nine. They will be in my solo show this May; one is the piece with the smoke; there are three in my Etsy shop (numbers 3, 4, and 5) and all 9 will be on the two sites I have online by the middle of April.


9. Describe what you do, or who you are in a haiku.

Love steals into life
Awakes the soul and turns it
Outward to the world


10. Is there anything else that you would like to share?

That I have found some wonderful women friends on Etsy, and you are one of them.


Thank you for sharing a little bit about your life with us Egilpatr.

You can visit Egilpatr’s Etsy Shop at:
Egilpatr.etsy.com